The Artifact Hunter
by GunjiBunny
Summary: Richard Graves struck a deal with the Regents that allowed him to retreive artifacts without having to deal with anyone but the head agents. Instead of the warehouse blowing up Graves had an idea that saved the Warehouse but trapped Artie in Warehouse 6
1. Chapter 1

**AN - I've had this idea for the longest time and am quite surprised at how few Warehouse 13 FF there are. I'll probably label this as Pete/Myka but that pairing wont occur until later on in the story. Please note I still don't have a beta but I do use spell check. Finally I own nothing, please support the official release.**

With only six minutes left trapped inside the warehouse Myka Bering, Pate Lattimer and Artie Nielsen were freaking out trying to figure out a way to survive the whole ordeal. Pete was picking up random inventory screens to see if anything could protect them while Artie fiddled with the bomb with Myka and H.G. Wells was messing with something else. Suddenly Artie's Farnsworth began to chime. Flipping it open Artie was surprised to see a young man he hadn't seen in a long time.

"Cant talk right now Rich, trying to figure out how to stop a bomb from blowing up."

"Good to see you too, how about you use my last gift to you? How much time is left?"

"Uh five minutes," stated Artie.

"Great, take it to the horse and if you can snag something like Lenape's Cloak, it should make you impervious to the blast because you need to either get in, concentrate and take it to the vault in the ruins of warehouse six, you remember where that was right? If you have the time toss it out otherwise hold onto the cloak and pray."

Grabbing the chair and pushing it along despite the calls of Myka and Wells.

"Pete have you seen the Lenape's Cloak?"

"Right here, why?"

"Bring it, meet me at the Trojan horse quickly."

Within a minute they were there and Artie threw on the cloak.

"The Trojan Horse used by the Greeks to get into Troy, it's said that this artifact allows you to get into anywhere. Graves had a hell of a time getting it in here until he discovered its little trick, once inside and thinking hard for three minutes you can enter any building anywhere. I am taking the bomb to warehouse six using the cloak to avoid the blast. Pete if something goes wrong I need you to find Richard Graves, he'll be able to find me again."

"Wait what?" exclaimed Pete but it was too late. Bracing for explosion Pete and the others were surprised to find the barrier vanish meaning that Artie had done it. Opening the horse they wanted to thank him but Pete couldn't see him. Rooting around inside Pete sighed

"It's a one way trip," stated Myka holding up the screen, "Where did he say he was going?"

"Warehouse six but he said we need to find a man named Richard Graves first, he'll be able to find him. Does that name ring a bell?" he asked Wells who looked stunned.

"Yeah he was legend from warehouse nine, he was an agent who disagreed with the regents. He had an idea that once we learned which artifacts were good and which were bad then we could use them in everyday things. He once stated that if we didn't evolve with it we'd never have any technology."

"Wait warehouse nine when was that?"

"Turkey 1517 through 1566, the Ottoman Empire"

"That's almost five hundred years ago, why are you talking about him as if he was alive?"

"Graves, or as he was known back then as Ertugrul, was one of the best locators of artifacts ever even going as far as locating at least five of the lost Dead Sea Scrolls. As punishment for disagreeing with the regents he was fired but kept on as an artifact hunter being paid for artifacts that he discovered. He was threatened to be bronzed after the regents discovered he had found and was using the Philosopher's stone."

"Harry Potter," exclaimed Pete in his fake British voice which both girls rolled their eyes at him and Wells continued.

"The real life Philosopher's stone grants eternal youth since even though he looks about twenty nine, he's really four hundred and ninety four. He's witnessed five warehouses and helped track down countless artifacts so if anyone knows where Artie is it's going to be him."

With that the Farnsworth that Artie left behind began to buzz, picking it up they were happy to see Claudia. After their hellos and everything Claudia asked where Artie was, after informing she with everything, Claudia who was fighting back tears said she'd get right on finding Richard Graves.

Pulling up to a hotel on the boarder between North and South Dakota Richard got out of his car and looked into the sky. Closing the door he went to the office and got himself a room before laying down on his bed and staring at the ceiling for a few moments before getting restless and getting up. Sitting at the small desk he began looking through his inventor of gifts he was going to present Artie when he got to the warehouse unless he was unsuccessful but then again that would just mean a different Agent to collect from. He had discovered another Dead Sea Scroll as well as Dumas' Pierre Picaud's Dagger from The Count of Monte Cristo which was a hard find since it erased all DNA evidence from the crime scene. He also discovered Attila the Hun's lion, a small statue that he carried into battle on top of a staff to show how fearsome he was, it gave the users amazing leadership abilities but also gave them a sort of blood lust.

One way that he kept up with the artifacts was another artifact he used, Artemis' arm circlet that heightened his reflexes. That had really come in handy when battling the undead when he discovered Ann Hibbin's Bible had begun to leech into the local graveyard it was housed in. In the history books Hibbin's was declared to be a witch and people believed that she wasn't one, in reality this was one they got right since Hibbin's was a witch. Setting the Bible and the dagger aside he picked up the lion statue and studied it, it had been a long time since he last saw this. Attila the Hun was alive when warehouse nine was around and Graves actually knew the man before he became hungry with power.

"Attila what are you doing out here?" asked Ertugrul as he hopped down from where he was sitting on a boulder just outside the city.

"Looking for you old friend, I'm going to be leaving for a while and I wanted to say goodbye. What is that? Another one of your old charms?"

Holding up the golden ring in the air looking through it.

"About a hundred years ago there was a poet named Tyrtaios who discovered a way to make people who couldn't create poetry. If someone wears this ring they should be able to write beautiful things, however there's a downside and I haven't figured that out yet."

"Downside, why not just put it on and use it? Something like that couldn't be bad could it?"

"You may think that but I've seen things that could turn your blood to ice."

After a few moments of silence Attila knew he wasn't getting anything more from his friend, instead they hugged like brothers before Attila turned and walked off. From the distance the next day Attila raised his staff with the lion perched on top of it with a nod towards his friend. Walking away from where he last saw his friend Ertugrul reached into his pouch and removed the little red stone before rolling it in his fingers and putting it away.

The little red stone sat in the palm of his hand now, squeezing it before putting it away. Walking over to the bed he rolled himself onto it and fell asleep. There was a final artifact that Graves had that he never turned in mainly because he thought it was really awesome. Back in 1935 a mechanic named Charles H. Garrett invented a water powered car, Henry Ford didn't like that and got him to get rid of it, instead Garrett personally gave it to Graves. It wasn't a real artifact, not yet at least, but it was something that shouldn't be out in public.

Turning on his side his thoughts went to out to Artie, he had met the man when he was a child actually. On a scouting mission to Moscow he discovered the young man inside of a bar, whispering to another man who Graves later discovered to be Alexander his contact, moving pass the pair he sat down and waited for his contact arrived, a bit amused to see that after Artie left Alexander sat down.

"Are you the man who will pay for these worthless pieces of junk?"

"That depends on what you have to show me."

"My friend is trading them for people, so they must be important."

"Yes, I am looking for a specific one though, a complete set of Matryoshka Dolls. Have you received these from him before," Graves asked sliding the photograph over.

"Not yet, but I have a few others would you like to see any of those? I have with me," Alexander said moving to check his bag and withdrawing a medium sized mallet and a chisel. Reaching out and touching the handle of the mallet Graves felt that spark and smiled.

"Yes I think we can make a deal for those as well."

He never heard from Alexander again, never actually discovering where Catherine the Great's Matryoshika dolls were located and still hunting them to this day. It wasn't until years later that he was formally introduced to the now older man.

Mrs Freddrick was standing near the door while Richard sat in a chair across the desk looking at the three men, James MacPherson, Artie Nielsen and Justin Bradshaw.

"So if what you're telling us is true then this young man is about three hundred years old, how is that possible?" demanded Justin but MacPherson stepped forward.

"You're new Bradshaw but even you must know that nothing is impossible. So you track down artifacts and sell them to the Warehouse?"

"Not really, more of paying Mrs Freddrick and the regents back after letting me keep the Philosopher's stone."

"Bradshaw, James if that's what the regents want then we have to believe that they know what they are doing."

"Yes and I'm not just here for a meet and greet, in fact I don't recall meeting anyone from warehouse twelve except for the main agent to turn in artifacts. I have a few items to turn in today," looking over to Mrs. Freddrick she nodded curtly then vanished before the agents even noticed, "Ok let's see what we have here, oh first is this," he motioned to a covered painting, "But don't remove it, that is the inspiration behind the book Dorian Gray, in fact it is the Portrait of Dorian Gray, I learned that it can capture your soul and keep you young forever. A side effect though is that it twists the user's soul, watched it first hand. Next is another painting, Henri Matisse's Painting of Dance, caused quite a lot of mayhem at a party, causes people to dance until they die."

Turning to Artie he smiled and removed one last artifact from his pouch and set it down on the table, slowly removing the cloth revealing the mallet and chisel that Alexander had sold him. A flash of reorganization was revealed in Artie's eyes but he remained silent.

"Yury Felten's mallet and chisel, turns people to marble. I could not find a good use for that one so I doubt it will be leaving the warehouse anytime soon."

"Wait what do you mean by that?" asked Macpherson.

"Well I believe myself that the artifacts should be studied and any of them that can benefit the world should be used. However I haven't discovered that many that are worth the risk. Consider the Chronos Sundial I turned in some time ago, it allows the user to control time itself that would be so helpful in the right hands yet if it was in Hitler's hands we would all be speaking German right now."

It wasn't that much later that Macpherson was declared a threat and sentenced to prison, Bradshaw was unfortunately lost in the Escher vaults during an incident with an accidental debronzing that led to the release of Ida Hitler, Adolf Hitler's older sister said to have died as an infant, she was an amazing woman and seductress, whose ideas would have destroyed all of Europe. After calling for assistance from Graves, he and Artie managed to trap her using Graves' own artifact Mehmed Orhan's cross which, since Ida was fluent in German, Latin and Turkish, gave Graves control over her. Ordering her to return to the bronze section the pair rebronzed her and started a new friendship.

Now Artie was lost somewhere in Cambodia, since the last known location of Warehouse Six was a city called Angkor which no longer existed. First he would have to go back to Warehouse thirteen to see if Artie's team knew anything about what was happening.

"Oh baby," called out Claudia bringing Myka, Pete and Leena over to where she was on the computer.

"Find something?" asked Myka.

"Yeah, it seems that Mr Graves has an personal account with the warehouse, how did I not notice this before? Anyways it looks like he was recently hoping around America and it looks like he might be returning home since the most recent purchase is a motel about five hours north of here."

"We have to go get him and see what he know about Artie," exclaimed Myka only to have Pete take her arm, "What?"

"It looks like he's coming here so why don't we just wait for him?" he explained calmly.

"But Pete Artie might be in trouble, hurt or even worse almost dead. We cant just sit around waiting."

"We wont be, we will all look up information about warehouse six. If it's anything like warehouse two then there will be tests to get into it."

"Warehouse two was lost, warehouse six was moved," chimed in Leena, "If we can locate it now then it should be still there, yes there will be a test but not a defense mechanism like two."

"Alright so that's the plan. Leena will Graves go to the Bed and Bath or here first?"

"Probably here, he never used the Bed and Bath before, no reason to start now."

Over the next few hours they did research and after that fell asleep at the desks and in the chairs.


	2. Chapter 2

"Why didn't we bother to clean this thing out," moaned Artie Nielsen as he drew the Lenape's Cloak closer to his body seeing the yellow shimmering light move over his body. Pulling up the hood he closed his eyes thinking about the only time he'd ever seen the inside of Warehouse six. His mind started to drift to those memories but they didn't take place where he was trying to get to so he pushed them away. Suddenly the world seemed to shift and bend around him, almost causing him to lose grip on the case which housed the Commons masonry. Standing he reached out and opened the small wooden door stepping out into a large almost empty room. The door swung close behind him causing him to spin and see that the outline of the door was once there before vanishing. Shaking it off he ran over to a small stone table and set the piece on top of it, only sixty seconds left. Moving across the way he pulled the cloak closer before running through the wall, not caring where he was going just wanting to get away. Even if the cloak protected him he needed to make sure he would be safe afterwards. Suddenly the ground was gone as he fell and rolled several times, losing the hood of the cloak in the process as well as catching it on something. He heard and felt the long tear as the cloak tore, coming to rest at the bottom of a grassy hill. Sitting up he wondered how he had gotten outside if the vault was like his office at Warehouse thirteen, maybe he had run the right way.

The explosion was loud and shook the ground causing a piece of rock to crash nearby and Artie saw that he was actually inside the warehouse still. Looking up he saw a painting on an easel which moved as the warehouse moved and it fell, the canvas tore and the hill vanished. Picking himself up he could hear the ancient alarm system of the warehouse kicking in to tend to the explosion, moving over to the painting he wondered if it was an artifact before seeing a calligraphy brush in a case with Chinese symbols under it, Mi Fu. In the move there must have been artifacts left behind such as this, which meant if he searched he might find a means of escape, discarding the cloak Artie wandered further into the large warehouse.

A loud pounding sound woke the trio of Claudia, Pete and Myka with a start, Myka had her gun drawn and pointed at the sound. Richard Graves stood there with his hands up in a surrendering motion.

"I give up Agent Bering, and in terms of surrender I come baring gifts of coffee, doughnuts and artifacts like normal."

Pete jumped up and came over snagging the bag Richard was now holding out and a cup of coffee left on the counter. Myka lowered her gun but her eyes were still suspicious of him.

"First tell us about yourself," Myka ordered as Pete grinned, took out a doughnut and tossed it to Claudia who accepted it but was also staring at Richard.

"Richard Graves, Artifact locator, if you read my old file which I bet you did you'd know I was an ex agent who was given the Philosopher's stone in exchange for doing what I do best, finding things like this."

Pulling his bag over he reached in and set the items on the desk next to him.

"Only two today since Artie takes priority but I don't want to be globetrotting with these on my person," he started as Leena entered the office, moving over to Pete and standing behind him, "Pierre Picaud's Dagger and Ann Hibbin's Bible, the dagger is a normal level but the Bible is a dark section grade."

"A bible?" asked Claudia reaching for it.

"Ann Hibbin's Bible," Graves stated moving to stop Claudia, doing so but getting Myka's gun pointed back at him. Taking a deep breath he blew it out, "Hibbin was a witch, burned at the stake at the Salem Witch Trials only unlike the others she really was a witch. Her ancestor was using that book to bring the dead back to life and torture a small town. Raising the dead has horrible consequences since it's done by a pact with the devil so yes it's dark vault material."

"We cant do that until Jane gets back," stated Leena walking over to the new artifacts.

"Where's Mrs. Freddrick?" he asked no one wanted to look him in the eyes for that one, "What happened?"

"She's dead, Jane is the new caretaker of the warehouse but she's stuck in Japan at the moment," explained Leena.

"Take me to her remains," Graves demanded leading Leena towards the door but Myka rose to stop him.

"No,"

"Myka," warned Pete but she ignored him.

"You are staying with us."

"Leena do you remember her necklace, the one of pearls? I need you to get it and keep it safe, Jane needs them."

"I don't think mom would look good in pearls," commented Pete getting a weird look from Graves, "Jane is my mom, a regent and the warehouse caretaker."

"Ever notice that Mrs Freddrick seems to be everywhere, vanishing, etc?" They all nodded, "The necklace lets her do that, it's Anne Boleyn's Pearls and for some reason when worn by the caretaker grants teleportation. It's a bi-artifact, missing the letter B charm but I have no idea where it could be and the records were lost. As the caretaker she needs to have that ability."

"I knew there was something artifacty about her!" exclaimed Pete earned a jab from Myka.

"It seems that the caretaker can use artifacts without fear from the negative effects, for the most part. Not that many artifacts have been tested, only a few that the caretaker deems worthy," explained Graves.

"Like your stone?" smirked Claudia.

"If I was to ever lose the stone, after twenty four hours, I die. It's the years of avoiding death catching up with you so it's not a good twenty four hours either it's a slow painful death, but enough about me and what I do. If you really want to grill me about my choices in this world we can do it later since right now we need to focus on Artie. If he followed my instructions then he's alive, but we wont have much time there's a defense mechanism in place that puts the intruder into a dream like state, to test his intentions. Since Artie is a long time agent he should be fine but after enough time the dream will get harder and harder to beat, if the warehouse believes he is a threat it will make him commit seppuku. It's in south east Asia and they believe in honor. We need a few things from the warehouse first so, you can come with me if you want, but I have to go shopping."

Myka frowned looking at Pete and Claudia for answers.

"What artifacts?" asked Claudia.

"I know where they are, I found most of them."

"I want to know which ones first."

"You probably wont like a few of them."

"They're artifacts I already don't," muttered Myka but Graves sighed.

"The best way to find the warehouse is with an artifact in the dark vault titled The Almacen, it's a wooden box that contains a small piece of every single warehouse, when placed on the next artifact, Henry Morton Stanley's Map, it reveals the location of all the warehouses. Warehouse six will require one of its own, an artifact that was discovered and placed within its walls."

"Like Honjo Masamune?" asked Pete but Graves shook his head.

"You guys retrieved that one right? No I'm looking for one I know what put into that warehouse Jayavarman II's Staff of the Mountains, it's been told to create islands. That one is also in the dark vault simply because of how powerful it is."

"Is that it?" stated a further annoyed Myka.

"One last thing I promise, Clara Barton's Gloves just in case Artie is in bad shape when we find him. By wearing both gloves he will be healed completely."

"Wait I remember those, they have some bad effects," stated Myka getting a nod from Pete.

"Wearing both though, when used separately they are bad. Look we are running out of time so unless you want to take out the Chronos Sundial and risk screwing up time and space we need to get gathering and get out of here."

"Okay, we'll get the items you wait here," stated Claudia as she, Myka and Pete took off. Graves looked over at Leena and smiled softly, she returned it and shrugged.

"They'll like you more if save Artie."

"How about giving me one more toy? I turned in the Babylonian Battery a while ago did you put that away yet?"

"No, but you know that it's pretty powerful."

"A telsa without the gun, I know Leena and you can trust me."

"Fine," she agreed taking the small device out of a desk and handing it over. Moving over to the desk he sat down to wait.

"The pearls?"

Nodding she turned and left.

Hours of wandering had just turned up with a lot of dust and maybe the odd ball artifact. About thirty minutes ago he accidently kicked a box, knocking out the artifact that was inside. it wasn't dangerous just really annoying, he looked back and saw the chicken that had been following him around, clucking. Artie had named her Chicken Claudia who was, according to the sign, General Tso's Pet Chicken, they didn't know what it's effect was until now but apparently it was a never dying chicken.

"Do you know how to get out of here?" he asked but Chicken Claudia just rotated her head and clucked mindlessly, "Aww forget about it." he groaned and continued his search.

"They took most of the important artifacts, but they left behind that one paint brush, maybe there's another one that can help." he said aloud to himself before turning and moving some papers aside until he came upon a really old school map, getting by he discovered which section held paintings and other items so that sort, running in that direction with Lil Claudia running after him. After a few minutes he came into a large area with thousands of voids on the walls where pictures were once hung, a few were still there. Moving up to the first which was the picture of a pair of koi he translated the card that hung there.

"Cui Bai's Winter Koi, makes the viewer believe they are drowning, nope." He moved the the next, "Deng Shiru's Seal, creates a near impenetrable seal used to lock people into rooms," Pausing he removed a handkerchief and wrapped the seal up, pocketing it before moving to the next which was a painting and a brush. "An Zhengwen's brush and work, the welder of the brush is able to enter the painting to avoid harm, An Zhengwen used this to escape an assassination attempt twice, sadly for him third time was the charm, perfect chicken Claudia, I can use this somehow." Reaching forward to take the brush he heard a loud alarm ringing through the warehouse, he then felt the ground shake. Turning around he saw a large Chinese statue of a warrior turn the corner, red eyes glowing. Shouting out in Japanese faster then Artie could translate it he found himself splashed in the red light, then he felt himself grow sleepy and collapsed onto the ground. The statue returned to normal state minus the eyes still glowing, keeping Artie in a dream state.

Instead of flying commercial Graves had used one of his many owed favors by people all over the world and landed them all a flight on a private plane to get them to Cambodia. So a few hours later all four of them were sitting in the plane as they were off.

"It's going to take at least a day to get there," explained Graves when annoyed Myka.

"Why?" she demanded.

"I didn't know you were so keen on using artifacts Agent Bering," which got a smile from Pete and an annoyed shake by Myka.

"That's not what I mean."

"Then you'll need to be more clear."

"Why did you send Artie to Cambodia?"

"Warehouse six was the first place I thought of that wasn't destroyed just moved, it was never discovered by outside sources but when Jayavarman the seventh was killed and the Thai rebellion began they were afraid of becoming unstable so it was sent across the country, into the Mongol Empire for almost five decades before moving to Rome. In the spur of the moment it was the safest place. Now that I have time to think about it I could think of closer places but that's in the past and we cant change it without screwing up a lot of things. Why are you so mad at me, I'm not a bad guy."

"You took him from me, Artie was like a father to me and you took him away," she shouted finally snapping, Pete and Claudia rushed to her side.

"I saved him," Graves rose, emotion seeping out of him as well, "What other choice would you have had me made? What good would it have been to have you all die with the Warehouse? How long have you know Artie, a few years maybe? I've worked with him his entire time and knew him before in Russia, I've known him for his entire life, if I could have I would have given him my stone to keep him alive."

The silence hung in the air like dish water until Claudia broke it.

"You cant die?"

"No, that's not what I meant. I can die normally just not by aging, so I know that wouldn't work but what I am saying is I'd die for my friends and Artie is my friend."

Myka was silent for a long time before walking off to the corner and sitting down. Whoever owed Graves was pretty rich since the main area had a long couch, several chairs and even a few swivel chairs, one that Graves was sitting in. There was also a non stocked bar which was at the end of a hall which led to several small beds with curtains so that one could sleep, at the very end was a meeting room. Sitting down across from her Pete gave her a little smile.

"Everything's going to be fine, we'll find the warehouse and find Artie and everything will go back to normal," assured Pete, Myka looked at him.

"Do you have a bad vibe?"

"Yes and no, about Graves, not really a small one but not about his intentions for Artie, no about this plane. It's awesome, there's a TV with guitar hero, wanna get your butt kicked?"

Smiling and shaking her head Myka watched as Pete went up to play with Claudia, her eyes followed them before falling on Graves who was watching them as well. Ever since that incident with Robert Louis Stevenson's Bookends she knew what Pete's vibes felt like and he was never afraid to tell her about them even when it came to Helena even though he didn't act on it. Blowing out a big breath of air she sighed, deciding to give him a chance. Moving closer to the trio she sat in the seat where Claudia once was, spinning to face Graves. She could see something in his eyes but couldn't tell if it was anger or sadness.

"I'm sorry, you're right we should just focus on saving Artie, we can take care of everything else afterwards."

Nodding at her truce Graves returned his eyes to the screen. Myka smiled and turned around to see Pete actually winning. Once Myka was no longer looked Graves removed a pocket watch from his pants pocket and popped it open, they would be there in twenty hours. Yawning he settled in for the ride.


End file.
